Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level and type of the genetic relationship between individuals.

Has anyone taken any of the DNA Tests out there? Which ones did you use? Preferences? Ive recently had one done with 23andMe and am thinking of doing the Family DNA one but am wondering what are the differences between the two.

If you already tested with 23andme, the following Family Tree DNA options make sense:

1) Y-DNA testing, if you are interested in your surname and male lineage. This might be useful to find other people with the same surname and you can see if you have the same male lineage, or to find other people with different surnames that share the same male lineage. It may also be useful if you want to get technical and see exactly where you fit in the current phylogeny. I was somewhat disappointed in this test, as I have only 1 match that provided me with no information.

2) MTNDNA testing, similar to Y-DNA, if you are interested in your female lineage (mother's mother's mother's mother, etc). This is less useful IMO for genealogy, as surnames change each time, and matches tend to be farther away in number of generations and harder to put a timeframe on. I did this, because again I am unique, having 'V' on my Slovenian side. So far, no one matches it closely enough to say we are related in the past 1000 years.

3) Family Finder import of 23andme data: Will give you a few matches similar to the 23andme relative finder. You can see some of these matches for free via gedmatch.com.

4) Full Family Finder test. I did not do this, but considered it because I am very technical and interested in medical issues and it is only a little more expensive than the import. If I had done this, I could cross reference my family finder data to my 23andme data to check for errors.

It all depends what you want to accomplish. If you want more information about genealogy, I think your money is better spent getting another relative tested on 23andme. If your parents or grandparents are still alive, having them tested via 23andme is probably going to get you more new genealogy data than anything you do with Family Finder.

Thanks for all the info! I was debating between the Ancestry.com new DNA test, which would obviously integrate nicely with my family tree there... or the 23andme one, which seems more popular and might provide more insightful information.

Ancestry DNA is an autosomal test, that is, it provides results for all your family lines and cannot tell you which matches fall on which of your lines. Also, since it has been offered for a shorter time than the other tests that are out there, I suspect that the size of the database has not caught up with tests like 23andme and FTDNA.

23andme has a particular strength in the medical area. If you want to find out about genetic predispositions to certain illnesses or allergies, that is the company with which to test.

My own preference for genealogical research is FamilyTreeDNA because of the size of the database, the range of tests they offer, and the information on their site.

Edmondo, my husband also tested at the Y-DNA 37-marker test with FTDNA and came up with Haplogroup G-M201. We have not yet ordered SNP tests due to limited funds, but I was surprised that the test has produced absolutely no matches for him. Any ideas why? I uploaded the results to YSearch also.

Hi Lesley, very interesting to know. Your husband and I share a common ancestor about 48.000 years ago who was part of the second migration of Homo Sapiens out of africa and went to the Middle East and later became the first settlers of Europe

I am very interested to know the test results. What KIT number does he have? Very interesting is the value of DYS19 which can exclude some SNP tests depending on the value(s). Does it have one or two values? If he does not want to share the information in public you can also send it by PM.

It is not strange he has no matches, I had only one based on 12 markers and one based on 37 markers.

Good he uploaded the information to YSearch, did he also join the Haplogroup G and/or the Italy project at FTDNA? There might be a project group too based on the Italian region his ancestors came from. He sure should join the Haplogroup G and Italy projects.

Hi, Edmondo. Nick hasn't had any other matches, but we enjoy telling about his relationship with Otzi and (we understand) Stalin.

Nick's kit number is 242898, and his DYS19 value is 15. What would you suggest for further testing when/if we have the funds?

I just signed him up for the two Y-DNA projects you suggested. I see that the Italy project blog hasn't had any new posts for about six years. Do you ever hear from the project managers?

I've traced Nick's paternal line [Caf(f)arella/i] back as far as we can go with civil and church records, to about 1700. During those generations, his ancestors were in Basilicata--in Laurenzana till about 1800, then migrating to Ferrandina, and the marrying into an Accetturesi family in 1876 and settling in that town before coming to the U.S. a few years later. I suspect that the line may have migrated to Laurenzana from Castelmezzano, but haven't found evidence other than the prevalence of the surname and recurring given names in both towns. His earliest documented ancestor bore the title "Magnifico," so I wonder if there might be any information in other historical records about the area, but have no idea how to find them. I did find a Caffarelli connection to Laurenzana in the Vergara-Caffarelli material online at http://www.vergaracaffarelli.it/.

If you have any other suggestions for me, let me know. Thanks for mentioning your Haplogroup G connection on this thread!

Hi Lesly, I advice to contact the administrator of the Haplogroup G project to get advised what next test Nick should take. His name is Ray Banks and you can contact him at DNAgrouper@gmail.com. Don't forget to let him know the KIT no.

This is the project page where you can find more information about recommended additional testing. Nick's KIT number and surname will show up soon in the new member list of November including the recommended test to take next, so you can also wait for it.

The Italy project is indeed not very active but joining the project will give you access to results of others who tested and have origins in Italy. Just 5 minutes ago I contact the administrator by email to ask why there are no updates since 2007. I will share his reply a.s.a.p.

My father's birth papers list a Michael DiPietro as his biological father. We are trying to unravel the secrets behind his birth certificate. My brother did the paternal lineage from ancestry.com and we learned that he belongs to the E1b1b haplogroup. They were the early farmers that settled in parts of the Medeterrean area to include Southern Italy. However, we were not linked with any relatives. To see if I could gain more information I took the DNA test. It does show that my ethnicity is 25% Italy/Greece. I am thinking that maybe there is some validity to my Dad's birth certificate. If anyone knows anything about this haplogroup or where the DiPietro ancestors lived I would greatly appreciate the help. It is believed that my grandmother Cecelia Plouffe may have lived with a Joseph DiPietro in Boston, Ma. in 1931 - 1932. He had a relative named frank that may have lived in Malden, Ma. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My father's birth papers list a Michael DiPietro as his biological father. We are trying to unravel the secrets behind his birth certificate. My brother did the paternal lineage from ancestry.com and we learned that he belongs to the E1b1b haplogroup. They were the early farmers that settled in parts of the Medeterrean area to include Southern Italy. However, we were not linked with any relatives. To see if I could gain more information I took the DNA test. It does show that my ethnicity is 25% Italy/Greece. I am thinking that maybe there is some validity to my Dad's birth certificate. If anyone knows anything about this haplogroup or where the DiPietro ancestors lived I would greatly appreciate the help. It is believed that my grandmother Cecelia Plouffe may have lived with a Joseph DiPietro in Boston, Ma. in 1931 - 1932. He had a relative named frank that may have lived in Malden, Ma. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Debbie, if you have evidence that your other three grandparents' ethnic background doesn't include Italy in any significant proportion, then the 25% Italy/Greece ethnicity returned by your result may indeed point to Italian ancestors as recent as your paternal grandfather. Your brother's paternal (Y-DNA) haplogroup provides information about that ancestral line's ancient origins, and you can find more information on the E1b1b haplogroup on FamilyTreeDNA or by Googling. There appears to be a group at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/e3bfor the E-M35 Phylogeny Project, which includes that haplogroup, and your brother might want to join. There does not appear to be a DiPietro project group currently.

To learn more about your recent ancestry, however, you need to do the work of researching all the available historical documents that pertain to your family, starting with your most recent ancestors. For someone to help you, we need more information than what you have provided. For example, what is your father's name and where and when was he born? What are the birth papers you're referring to? What do you know about Cecelia? Where and when was she born? Did she immigrate to the U.S. and if so, when and from where? Do you have personal knowledge of her residential addresses at different dates and what kind of work she did? Whom did she marry and what do you know about them? I take it that Michael DiPietro was either not her lawful husband or you don't know about her marital status. Does your father's birth certificate indicate his parents' marital status? Have you searched for Cecelia's records? Do you have any other documents linking your father to Michael? What's the source of the information you have about Joseph DiPietro and his relative Frank?

Rather than answering these questions here, since this thread pertains to DNA Testing, I suggest that you begin a new thread in the Italian Genealogy forum with a subject like "Seeking information on Michael DiPietro from (^Massachusetts location)." This will draw the kind of help you need finding historical information.

With only the information you cited above, I did a quick search on Ancestry for a Cecelia Plouffe residing in the Boston area around 1930. I found a 1920 U.S. Census record for a Cecelia, age 20 and single, living ("inmate")at the Wrentham State School in Wrentham, Massachusetts. There are two DiPietro children, both girls, age 12 and 13, living at the school at that time. There is also a 1930 census showing a Cecelia Plouffe, 29, at a residence in Belmont, MA, working as a "helper." This may or may not be the same person or your grandmother. It takes more thorough research to prove the connections. If there is a residential address on your father's birth certificate, that, along with his birth date, will help.

Coincidentally, I have a friend whose name is Michele DiPietro, who is from Pescara, Italy, and lives currently in the state of Georgia. This does not mean that your Michael DiPietro is from Pescara. A search for the current distribution of the surname DiPietro in Italy shows that it is distributed widely, and I understand that this is based only on current land lines, not cell phones, which are in wider use: http://www.cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cognomi-italiani/DIPIETRO. You need to begin with what you already know for certain and work backwards, which will include trying to narrow down which DiPietro in the Boston area is your grandfather based on historical documents.

Analysis of the mtDNA of Ötzi the Iceman, the frozen mummy from 3300 BC found on the Austrian-Italian border, has shown that Ötzi belongs to the K1 subclade. His mtDNA cannot be categorized into any of the three modern branches of that subclade (K1a, K1b or K1c). The new subclade has preliminarily been named K1ö for Ötzi.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ha ... e_Iceman_2

November 2nd is All Souls' Day,a Catholic feast dedicated to the memorial of the dead which, according to tradition, can be dated back to ancient times.This day, in almost every country, the dead are remembered with different rituals and customs, yet the aim is just one: give some consolation to the...

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